Today, after a briefing session between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his counterpart from South-Korea, Secretary Pompeo and Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha held a joint press conference. Serious discussions with resolute heart. WATCH:

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[Transcript] SECRETARY POMPEO: Good afternoon. It is my honor to welcome Foreign Minister Kang to Washington. It is important to meet with such a critical ally so early in my time as Secretary at this incredibly critical time as well. Our alliance with the Republic of Korea was forged in the crucible of war 65 years ago. Tens of thousands of Koreans and Americans sacrificed their lives in the pursuit of freedom for South Korea.

In the years since, the citizens of South Korea took the hard-earned freedom and transformed their war-shattered country into an economic wonder. The Republic of Korea is now the 11th largest economy in the globe, the sixth largest trading partner of the United States, and a key force multiplier for U.S. leadership in the world. The U.S.-Republic of Korea alliance has been fortified by the trials of history and is unequivocally now stronger than ever. Over 28,500 men and women of the United States Forces Korea serve as the forward-deployed face of the ironclad U.S. commitment to the security of the Republic of Korea, its people, and indeed to the entire region.

The prospect of peace and security in the Korean Peninsula and across the Asia Pacific region is why we have stood shoulder to shoulder for more than six decades. Just yesterday, I returned from Pyongyang, where I had productive discussions with Chairman Kim Jong-un in preparation for President Trump’s summit with him. It was an honor as one of my first actions as Secretary of State to negotiate the safe return of three U.S. citizens and bring them home to freedom. We wish these Americans and their families the best as they reconnect after a very difficult time apart. On behalf of the American people, we say welcome home.

The release of these three citizens helps set the conditions for a successful meeting between President Trump and Chairman Kim. We look forward to our continued preparations with the DPRK to make the summit in Singapore on June 12th a true success for the American and Korean people and for the world. I congratulate South Korea and North Korea on their historic meeting last month. The United States is encouraged by President Moon and Chairman Kim’s stated goal of complete denuclearization in the Panmunjom declaration.

Today, Foreign Minister Kang and I discussed the summit, my trip to North Korea, and the bold step President Trump is about to take when he meets with Chairman Kim. We would not be where we are today without the close and coordinated leadership of Presidents Trump and Moon. The United States and the Republic of Korea remain committed to achieving the permanent, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. If Chairman Kim chooses the right path, there is a future brimming with peace and prosperity for the North Korea – North Korean people. America’s track record of support for the Korean people is second to none.

If North Korea takes bold action to quickly denuclearize, the United States is prepared to work with North Korea to achieve prosperity on the par with our South Korean friends. The United States looks forward to continued close cooperation with our South Korean allies on this issue and many others.

Foreign Minister, thank you for being with me today. It was a pleasure to work with you.

♦FOREIGN MINISTER KANG: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, for the very warm welcome. Let me reiterate my congratulations on your becoming the top diplomat of the United States at this historic moment. Secretary Pompeo, you have already been at the center of our joint efforts on North Korea, and I very much look forward to working closely with you.

We spoke on April 28th right after the momentous inter-Korean summit, and today we met just after Secretary Pompeo’s return from Pyongyang. During our meeting, I congratulated him and President Trump for the successful release of the three U.S. citizens, all Korean Americans, from North Korea. This is a promising signal for the upcoming summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim.

Over the past weeks, both Korea and the United States have been engaged in intensive diplomatic efforts regarding North Korea, and we briefed each other on the latest endeavors, including Secretary Pompeo’s visit to Pyongyang and the Korea-Japan-China trilateral summit in Tokyo, which adopted a special statement welcoming the outcome of the South-North Korean summit and expressing the strong hopes for the success of the upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit. In this context, Secretary Pompeo and I discussed preparations for the summit meeting between President Trump and Chairman Kim in Singapore on June 12th. We agreed that the summit would be a historic opportunity for resolving the North Korean nuclear issue and securing enduring peace on the Korean Peninsula. We reaffirmed that our goal is to achieve the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

In this regard, Secretary Pompeo and I agreed the next few weeks will be critical, requiring air-tight coordination between our two countries. As announced, President Moon will visit Washington, D.C. soon to meet with President Trump. The close communication and trust between Presidents Trump and Moon have been the driving force that has brought us to this point of breakthrough for the denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula. So their meeting on the 22nd will be instrumental in preparing for a successful U.S.-North Korea summit.

Secretary Pompeo and I reaffirmed that the ROK-U.S. alliance, which celebrates its 65th anniversary this year, has long served as the linchpin for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region. We also reaffirmed that for the last 65 years, the USFK, the United States Forces in Korea, has played a crucial role for deterrence and peace and stability of the region, and we would like to emphasize again that the U.S. military presence in Korea is a matter for the ROK-U.S. alliance first and foremost.

After today’s meeting, I am even more confident that our alliance is as robust as ever and that there is no daylight in our cooperation on the denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Once again, I would like to thank Secretary Pompeo for today’s fruitful discussions and look forward to building a close working partnership relationship with him. And in addition to the upcoming summit meeting in Washington, D.C. on May 22nd, I hope to see him again in Seoul and reciprocate the hospitality very soon. Thank you very much.

MS NAUERT: Thank you. And we have time for two questions total. The first goes to Rich Edson from Fox News Channel. Rich.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. You just mentioned and have mentioned before, as have the South Koreans, that you are looking for permanent, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization. How does the United States specifically define that? Is it inspections, full facility dismantling? Is it more than that, less than that? And also, you have had more substantive conversations with Kim Jong-un than arguably any other Westerner. What is your impression of him? Do you think he’s rational? And simply, what’s it like to talk to him?

And to the foreign minister, are South Korea and regional allies discussing providing any sanctions relief to North Korea before the summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, and what kind of outcome does South Korea need to secure its security, and does that include the maintenance of current U.S. military assets in the region? Thank you very much.

SECRETARY POMPEO: So I have spent more time with Chairman Kim other than perhaps President Moon working on this incredibly important challenge that lays before the world. President Trump and the world have set the conditions for a successful outcome from June 12th and the activities that are necessary to follow there from. You asked about my conversations with Chairman Kim. This question is sort of undignified, “Is he rational?” Yes, we had good conversations, substantive conversations, conversations that involve deep, complex problems, challenges the strategic decision that Chairman Kim has before him about how it is he wishes to proceed and if he is prepared in exchange for the assurances that we’re ready to provide to him if he is prepared to fully denuclearize. And I’m not sure how to define it fully.

It’s pretty clear what that means. It would be an activity that undertook to ensure that we didn’t end up in the same place that we’d ended up before, or multiple passes at trying to solve this conundrum for the world, how to ensure that North Korea doesn’t possess the capacity to threaten not only the United States but the world with nuclear weapons. And so in order to achieve that, it will require a robust verification program and one that we will undertake with partners around the world, which will achieve that outcome in a way that frankly no agreement before it has ever set forth. A big undertaking for sure, but one that Chairman Kim and I had the opportunity to have a good, sound discussion on so that I think we have a pretty good understanding between our two countries about what the shared objectives are.

QUESTION: What’s he like?

SECRETARY POMPEO: I’m sorry.

QUESTION: What’s he like?

SECRETARY POMPEO: We had good conversations. There – it was – there’s some videos that have been released. You can see our conversations were warm. We were each representing our two countries, trying our best to make sure that we were communicating clearly, that we had a shared understanding about what our mutual objectives were. But we had good conversations about the histories of our two nations, the challenges that we’ve had between us. We talked about the fact that America has often in history had adversaries who we are now close partners with, and our hope that we could achieve the same with respect to North Korea.

FOREIGN MINISTER KANG: I think your question about sanctions relief, I think we were very clear that the sanctions remain in place until and unless we see visible, meaningful action taken by North Korea on the denuclearization track. The North Korean leader has committed to denuclearization, and formally so through the Panmunjom Declaration. We very much hope to see further steps, more concrete steps towards denuclearization being produced at the U.S.-North Korea summit. So we’re not talking about sanctions relief at this point.

Your question about what are we looking in terms of for our own security, we are confident of our security through the Korea-U.S. joint security stance, which is why we say the issue of the alliance – any issue of the alliance, including the troop presence in our country, is a matter for our two allies to discuss and not to be put on the table with North Korea.

QUESTION: (Via interpreter) Recently, there was a talk that possibly USFK can be reduced. Was it discussed in your bilateral talks today? And when President Moon visits Washington D.C. before the Pyongyang and Washington, D.C. talks, what kind of coordination did you make in the run-up to this upcoming discussion between Pyongyang and Washington, D.C.?

(In English) (Inaudible) Pyonyang and (inaudible) Kim Jong-un, and our historic summit between President Trump and Kim is fully set up. However, the key issue is dismantling North Korea’s WMD. And I guess there’s a quite a big gap between U.S. and north standpoint. So did you actually discuss the issue with Kim, with – this issue with Kim? And have you two narrowed the differences? And do you think he’s willing to give up his WMD? Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER KANG: (Via interpreter) So there was no talk about reducing USFK at all. If there was any talk about USFK, it was only about how solid our alliance is, and any issue, any discussion about USFK or alliance should be discussed as such, between our two nations which are in alliance, and not in North Korea and U.S. talks, which was confirmed by Secretary Pompeo. And May 22nd is the day when U.S. President, the South Korean president will meet again. And along the way, President Trump and President Moon have a close relationship and trust with each other, and it played a key role. So in the run-up to the North Korea and the U.S. summit, discussion between the two leaders will play a key role in preparing and setting the tone for the talks. So we are making our best effort to best prepare for this summit.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Your question was about were details discussed. We had quite a conversation about it. I’m not going to share that here; we’re not going to negotiate the details of the agreement in this setting. We’ll do it in conversations between our leaders and our working teams that are hard at preparing for the summit. I am confident that we have a shared understanding of the outcome that the leaders want – certainly Presidents Trump and – President Trump and Chairman Kim, but I think President Moon as well. I think we have a shared vision for what we hope, when this process is completed, the Korean Peninsula looks like. I think we have a good understanding, and I think there is complete agreement about what the ultimate objectives are.

We began to work through the modalities, how we would achieve that, but I’ll leave conversations about that to another time. So thank you for your question.

“As announced, President Moon will visit Washington, D.C. soon to meet with President Trump. The close communication and trust between Presidents Trump and Moon have been the driving force that has brought us to this point of breakthrough for the denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula. So their meeting on the 22nd will be instrumental in preparing for a successful U.S.-North Korea summit.”

Most excellent!

God bless President Trump, SOS Pompeo and all who work tirelessly in this endeavor.

We are living and breathing history in the making, thank you, Jesus! 🙏

Amen!!
I tell my wife & kids this almost daily that the things PDJT Via God is accomplishing are of such great historic significance that I wish I could record every moment for a personal family collection.

I’m sure the preparation for this meeting in Singapore are extensive assuring that no deep state has the possibility causing tragedy among other needed prep.

Having said that I like to see Kim like this: Truly smiling with a genuine happiness as it shows. I think finally being free makes all this possible.
There would be nothing more than for the NK people also to experience a better future. How is that not a future to look forward to?

President Trump is freeing more people than any leader past, he does not bring war to nations nor does he threaten anyone. I think that alone is a welcome strategy by many peoples around the world. So far and since the 90’s America has engineered coups that only served the deep state and their masters at the NWO.

There is God’s hand in everything our president and his team does – he has the ultimate guidance that can never be matched.

I think that much of Kim’s aggressive talk against the USA was because he genuinely feared he would be unseated and killed. His demeanor is changed because now, in spite of his very evil behavior, he knows that if he starts acting like a world leader, he has nothing to fear.

The destruction of communism everywhere, including the USA, is essential for true peace in our world, but God is the one who will have to put everything in place to make that happen and it will not happen without intense and ongoing prayer. PDJT is doing his part to begin removing obstacles to true peace. Most of us need to contribute with the prayer support.

Anyone else think Pompeo looks and sounds like a fitter smarter and more competent Chris Christie? Our VSG sure knows how to pick them. I think he deserves to be added to the Badger meme. We had the Econ badgers and now a Diplo badger.

Dan this was an incredible Joint Press Conference! It solidified for me that the agreement is already in place. I think Kim Jong-Un is chomping at the bit to have his country go from the late 19th Century to the 21st Century in TRUMP speed.

Secretary Pompeo dropped some hints throughout. I think Singapore 🇸🇬 was selected to showcase to Kim what North Korea 🇰🇵 could look like in 10 years.

The 12th of June will be the day that they (our President and Kim Jong-un) announce that the meeting produced the following (which was already agreed upon):

* North Korea agrees to the full denuclearization as well as the elimination of all ballistic missiles

* North Korea agrees that a team from the US will be permitted to be in their country to view the entire process take place (it will commence sometime in early July)

* North Korea agrees to allow inspectors into any area of their country to verify they lived up to their end of the agreement

The United States will agree to the following:

* Upon having verifiable proof that North Korea has removed all nuclear and ballistic missiles, sanctions will be immediately lifted

* Once we have verifiable proof, North Korea will receive humanitarian aid for their citizens

* The US will begin construction on an Embassy to be located in the Capital of Pyongyang

* The US will work on locating an area where North Korea can have their Embassy in the US

It was very telling that our troops in South Korea will not be a condition of the agreement. Both Secretaries were clear that it is not on the table. However, I think over a short period of time, we will pull our troops from South Korea given the fact we have a base with 50K troops in Japan 🇯🇵.

Peace in Korea fixes one bad outcome of Potsdam. The other territorial issues in Asia are from the legacy of Potsdam as well. Kuriles/Northern Territories and Russia, Tokdo/Takeshima and Korea, Daiyu/Senkaku and Taiwan/China. The same with the South China Sea.

Heather Nauert has emerged as a really formidable referee with the press…and is another example of how our President knows how to pick the best people.

Heather was on Fox & Friends this morning and talked about “what an honor” it is, to be a part of this administration and to be a part of these history-making events.
Apparently she was very involved in coordinating the return of the hostages.

Sec Pompeo continues to impress.
The poor man seems to be able to operate on very little sleep, just like our Potus.

Interesting how they let the Fox News guy ask such multi-part questions, to both officials…and then let the Yonhap reporter have only one.
Haaa.

I saw that on F&F this morning. I think Heather Nauert has had a promotion. She was TRex’s SD spokesman or something like that but I think she has a new title, Assistant Secretary for something or another.

I like how she handles the press. She doesn’t take any, ah, guff from them. Sets firm boundaries. Reminds me of SHS!

She was impressive this morning on F&F, and she was impressive here also, I thought. Very glad to see it.

I had the distinct impression she had moved up although she didn’t say that. I think she did really, really well as spokeswoman for State. Much better than the people BO had in place.

From her days on Fox she was an anchor so it was basically news reading and I didn’t have much of a sense of her personality. She strikes me as a real class act, and very strong and confident. I like her a lot.

Bittersweet. My heart soars to watch Trump take on the insidious globalist fronts like NK, one by one. My soul is sore reflecting on the depths of depravity our uniparty “leaders” have gone to sell out liberty and the human spirit.

Although it is not in the Presidential Oath of Office, I am confident that President Trump will defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic as our Commander in Chief. Iran next and then I am hoping the best for last – our domestic enemies!!

However, as these proceedings towards peace advance, I can’t help but wonder if there will eventually be trials similar to the Nuremberg Trials, or will the world simply forgive and forget about the crimes committed by the Kim regime.

the “Kim” regime has done very little, or should I say just a “few things” worth noting. Lite off some nuke tests, used trumped charges to screw with visitors, wiped out some of his relations (internal matters)….shot off some rockets that gave some tight knickers to some pilots and others…. It was his father and grandfather that did most of the really nasty deeds!…along with their Chinese “helpers”… he was the one that sent the 28 NORK officers thru a tunnel under the DMZ in 1968 – to kill the Pres of South Korea…I had to spend 30 days in the field in deep winter because of that stunt…

All the real nasty things done were many moons ago… IF we have verified cooperation, let this twerp make the peace for his fathers’ and bury the hatchet…

What would be really interesting is to find out just “who” gave them the plans and tech needed for that “fussion” device with variable yield control… Pull on that string and I’m thinking a whole lot of hurt would be dumped on BC and HRC’s doorstep…Remember the “hard drive” that went missing and then turned back up?…Los Alamos lab as i recall. Might make for some real “leverage” at some trade table with the Chi Coms…. Maybe we ought to just make a recording and play it for the entire world…let everyone decide if they want to “trade” with such a country or not…put them back behind their own wall…eh?
Check-6

Awesome Sundance, the photo👍. As in most of all of this Presidents undertakings it is refreshing to see respect and a little humor. It creates great friendship which are a must when solving difficult problems.
A process that is very lacking in the previous eight years of the Soros side show with Ears. Aided by war mongers now exposed in the CoC, DNC, GOPe and MSM daily pimp shows.

Furthermore shedding light on the last eight years and the months to date of all the exposed clowns that have consumed the witch’s brew of Russia, Russia, Stormy, Mueller, Strzok. etal and believed it. Do you still wonder why anyone ever thought they had the ability to pour water out of a pitcher let alone mentally able to tie their shoes.

They were never capable of running this USA or create a foreign peaceful policy, MAGA, repair their regulated destruction of the forgotten men, women, all American citizens. Everyone a loser. Now you should know why trash cans are necessary or Gitmo.

I loved it during Sarah Sanders pres. briefing the other day she was asked about comments Obama, Hillary, and John Kerry made about President Trump’s foreign policy. Her reply “Considering their success rate, they would be the last 3 people they would consult.” I am only slightly off on her line also!

“You asked about my conversations with Chairman Kim. This question is sort of undignified, “Is he rational?” Yes, we had good conversations…”

Undignified? Well, yes, that too. The world is so very, very fortunate that Sylvia Avery isn’t the Secretary of State. I would have grabbed my shovel from under the podium and leaped out and started bashing Rich Edson with it while asking him, “What’s WRONG with you? Didn’t your mother teach you any manners???”

I don’t know where the Administration finds the patience, but I do admire it. And even Foreign Minister Kang was no pushover! I thought she had some starch in her, as well. Pretty satisfying to watch.

That was just out of the park rude. It’s a delicate dance that all parties are doing with each other at the moment leading up to the main course, and this idiot has to risk blowing the whole detente off the rails by asking if KJU is in his right mind? What did he think the answer was going to be anyway? Sometimes I wonder whether reporters ever get past puberty.

That struck me as incredibly dumb, also. What did he REALLY think Pompeo was going to say? The guy is nuttier than a fruitcake? Even if that was true Pompeo is now our head diplomat he can hardly say that.

This whole process is as you said very delicate and asking a stupid, insulting question like that could mess things up. I’m glad Pompeo called him out on that.

I’m very glad President Trump has on multiple occasions indicated that we should keep an open mind, remain optimistic, but if he cannot get Kim to accept reasonable terms, POTUS will not sign a bad agreement.

That has obviously been stated for both internal and foreign consumption.

It is such a relief that VSGPDJT and his team have such friendly relations with the world leaders and the diplomats of the countries they are dealing with. I truly believe they will achieve world peace. Thank you again, Sundance, for all you do!

Bit of caution when dealing with ROK administration. Both the President Moon and the Foreign Minister are well known leftists. Moon in fact was very much against POTUS’s deployment of THAAD missile system and instead wanted to appease the Chinese. No doubt they want the peace treaty, and pretty much go along with POTUS in regards to the negotiation, but there could be secret ‘side deals’ between the Koreas.

I have mentioned on these pages before that I was 8 YO in 1951 when I started reading the Newark Evening News, mostly page 2, column A, the daily reports of USAF action.
I was building model airplanes and really enjoyed the aviation aspect, without realizing the human cost.

I also think that there is some kind of heavenly alignment with our VSGPDJT arriving on the scene with his unique statement at the debates that NoKO is CHINA’s problem!!! The other 16 empty suits didn’t have a clue!!! Also very timely that the 3rd generation dictator (and mellowed from distant Korean War memories), extensively schooled in modern, Western European Swiss schools — surrounded by children of wealthy, mostly Western nation parents — is now eager to join civilization. And the third aligned star — accident or rods from God or whatever, the utter recent failure of Kim’s nuclear program, losing 100 scientists and 100 rescue workers and their major test tunnel and equipment was the final nail.

There is no starker contrast between the successes of western civilization and failures of communism than there is on the Korean Peninsula.

It is a shame that American and western leadership for decades has enabled this hermit kingdom to hold advanced, western countries hostage to a failed state’s campaign to perfect weapons of mass destruction.